Border Security

Cross-border criminal activity fueled by illegal drugs is causing great damage in both Mexico and the United States. The two governments need to prioritize forging an agreed strategy and action agenda to tackle this serious problem. They should establish a permanent cabinet-level group to oversee bilateral counter-narcotics and cross-border crime cooperation and to monitor progress.

The Wilson Center's Mexico Institute and the Border Trade Alliance held the sixth annual high-level "Building a Competitive U.S.-Mexico Border" conference, which focused on improving border management in order to strengthen the competitiveness of both the United States and Mexico. Topics covered at the conference included USMCA (the renegotiated NAFTA), strengthening security and efficiency at border ports of entry, the impact of tariffs and reduced staffing on trade, and growing crossborder cooperation for regional economic development.

Record numbers of migrants, over 70 percent of whom are from Guatemala and Honduras, are being processed by immigration officials. Asylum claims are up more than 1,000 percent since 2013.

Shelters along the border are overwhelmed, and the government is scrambling to keep up. This may sound like the introduction to every article you have read about the U.S. southwest border crisis, yet the prior statements refer not to the United States but to Mexico.

Over the past week, President Trump has renewed threats to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border. This comes at a time when Mexico is making new efforts to lower the number of people entering the United States through Mexico. In recent months, there has been a dramatic surge in the number of migrants crossing into the United States at or between official ports of entry on the southern border.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) has adopted an attitude of placation and appeasement in his dealings with Trump and has tried to either ignore provocations from the White House or make concessions to avoid an unwanted spat. That strategy has failed.

Transnational criminal organizations and cartels use corridors connecting Central and South America to the United States as an illicit sales route, dealing in anything that can turn a profit. Drug trafficking, human smuggling, illicit weapons, money laundering, and public corruption are the tools of their poisonous trade, and countries throughout the region suffer the devastating effects.

As the United States debates “emergencies” at its southern border and negotiates a trade deal with China, U.S. leaders must confront the lethal trade in fentanyl from other North American countries and especially from China, a major player in the opioid epidemic that is killing tens of thousands of Americans each year.

The U.S. needs to double down on efforts to assure more effective cooperation with China, Mexico and Canada, bilaterally and through a new four-way framework to halt this deadly commerce.

The Wilson Center, chartered by Congress as the living memorial to President Woodrow Wilson, is the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum. In tackling global issues through independent research and open dialogue, the Center informs actionable ideas for Congress, the administration, and the broader policy community.